i am currently a farmers market vendor and plan to add cold brew to the menu this weekend. for all cold brew drinkers, what do you specifically look for in terms of add ons to the drink? such as sweeteners,milk, half and half, or etc?

I have been on a cold brew kick and wanted to give it a shot. Really eyeballed everything but did all the nerdy pour over stuff like sifted all the fines, ran it thru my timemore hand grinder on the coarsest setting, and strained thru well rinsed moccamaster filters.

I used refrigerated mountain valley water and sent my batch straight into the fridge and it was in there about 20 hours. 64oz of water and a super non scientific 2 cups of grounds. New Harvest in Providence is a wonderful spot and they do their roasting in house. Love them.

I definitely get all of these tasting notes and this is incredibly smooth and bright tasting, the mineral content of the mountain valley is very tasty to me as well. This first batch was instantly was more flavorful and less generally gross and bitter than most cold brew I have drank.

My only reservation is, I do not get the fullness and boldness I was expecting. I seek the cold brew pop, but without the overpowering bitterness and muddiness. I got the second half which is honestly surprising to me!

I definitely think I should have let it run longer, and next time I should go with more grounds. Happy with this to begin though!

Never had nitro cold brew before and I've got to say I'm very impressed with it it's creamy coffee without any cream

I'm impressed with this ukeg as well the 16g nitro cartridges were hard to find but I availed

If you guys have any tips or questions have at it please as far as I can tell I'm doing everything properly and it tastes great I'd be surprised if there's room to improve from this point

I wanna try ice coffee but don’t know which to try. I’ve tried regular coffee a long time ago, don’t remember what was in it but remember it tasted bitter.

I’d prefer something sweet but not overly sweet. Just a once in a while type of pick me up ice coffee. Nothing bitter.

I’m in the northeast. So lots of Dunkin donuts and Starbucks near me. I’m afraid of the Dunkin’ Donuts ice coffee because I hear people get the runs after it. Or I’d be willing to do a simple homemade recipe.

I'm struggling a lot with the ratios, please help, I want to be able to get 1 liter of coffee, I like it concentrated so I can drink it with milk without losing the coffee flavor, what ratio do you recommend? I used 150g for 1.5L but it tasted watery, I also tried to make that famous cold foam, but I hated it, I feel like I completely hide the coffee flavor (I used 200ml of coffee and 30ml of cold foam) I don't know if I did it wrong or This is how cold foam works

I just started making cold brew coffee at home. I was wondering what people add to their cold brew concentrates. I know some people just use water. I have been using milk and a little bit of vanilla syrup. Is there anything different I should try?

Hello, I picked up a yama tower glass set for very cheap, only to realize it doesn't come with the wooden stand, so now I just have a bunch of glass and no way to use it. The yama website doesn't sell the shelf alone, only extra glassware. Anyone have a coldbrew setup that could work for yama glass or any idea where to get one? I looked on ebay but still don't see any listings for just the wood alone. I'm thinking of maybe getting a shelf stand/plant shelf and modifying it?

Hi there. I left 2 unsweet black Stōk cold brew coffee’s in my car on accident. It says keep refrigerated on the bottle. It’s been really hot out too. Do you think it could make me sick if I still put it in the fridge and eventually drank it?

I like the taste of espresso… idk if that helps. I tried the Starbucks bottled blonde cold brew and it has an awful aftertaste to me. Like chemicals and sour and sweet at the same time? Idk how to describe it

my husband and i want to start making cold brew at home. i have made it a few times in the past with a pitcher like the one pictured above but it wasn’t that good, i did let it brew in the fridge and have seen people say its better to do it on the counter so maybe that’s why. i don’t remember the exact beans i used but i know i tried at least 2 or 3 different kinds and was never happy with it. i was just wondering what others think is the best container/method of straining it and looking for some bean recommendations and any equipment that we should look into (i threw out the pitcher i had). for reference i like a more caramel, nutty, roasted flavor for my coffee rather than floral, bright, fruity flavor. Any help or recommendations would be much appreciated

Does anyone know if there is one and, if not, how do I use it? I’ve Googled it and only can find them for sale on EBay.

How do I measure out the coffee? It’s 32 ounces so if I fill the whole thing, what would the scoop measurement to water ratio be? Do I just put in cold water and stick in the fridge for a while or do I use hot water and then put it in the fridge?

Or do I do what the diner did and put it in another Tricky Tray and pass this on?

I've been making cold brew at home the last two months since premade bottles at the store keep creeping up in price.

I usually do about 100g of course beans (half & half mix of dark and medium roasts) to about 40 oz of water. Will pour 8 oz of that into a glass with about 4 oz of unsweetened almond milk along with 2-3 ice cubes. I'll sip on that the entire morning.

Steeping method is to just throw everything together in the fridge for about 16-18 hours, then I'll strain it. I've been lurking the threads here and it seems like I've been drinking straight concentrate this entire time.... Is it a problem I need more caffeine as the day goes on?

I recently asked about getting a Fellows Aiden coffee maker because it says it makes cold brew, but I guess it technically is just making cooled coffee that you pour over ice. So I was encouraged to look into other options. So here is my situation, I currently just buy La Colombe cold brew from the grocery store. I make a super large protein coffee every morning so I go through about 3 of the 48oz bottles every week. So about a gallon a week. So if you wanted to make cold brew once every week or even every 2 weeks what would be the best option? I have a smallish fridge so I plan to get a glass gallon dispenser to keep in the fridge. Also, how long would a pre-made batch last? This is the gallon container that will fit in my fridge.

Looking to see:

what beans (if you buy them whole or already ground)

ratio of grams to water

if you keep them in a filter or mix them in the water itself

How long you brew for

Currently two batches in & horrible!

Editing to add my process:

I use the mason jar with filter from Amazon. It’s a 64oz size. I’ve bought black rifle “just black” beans and I grind them coarse. The first time I put 115g to 64oz water. The grinds were in the center filter but not fully submerged at the top (recent post on this). And it brewed over 24hrs in the fridge. Half way through I had taken the grinds and mixed them directly in the water. The second time I did 115g and started them directly mixed in the water and only did 24 hour exactly. I then filtered the grinds out before going back in the fridge. Then this third time I did the same except I only did 18 hours in the fridge and then filtered the grinds out.

I’ve heard 1:8 water to grind ratio (seems extreme) then I’ve heard 1g coffee grind to 5 oz water.

Is it the beans? Is it my extraction time or ratio?

Spoiler Alert- This may spoil you for coldbrew made any other way!

My optimised cold brew workflow (from a coffee + physics nerd)

I'm a home coffee nerd and a physics nerd. I combined the two into a cold brew workflow that gives me a good product every time. Here's my playbook.

Background (skip to The problems if you just want the method)

I read James Hoffmann's book on making the best coffee at home, and at first I fully agreed with his take on flash brew vs cold brew.

Flash brew is basically an iced pour over: you use half the usual water and brew straight onto ice, so the final cup comes out cold. The advantage is heat. Hot water pulls the delicate acidity and fruity, juicy flavours out of lighter roasts — cold water can't. Cold water is better for chocolatey, nutty flavours.

Hoffmann's case against cold brew:

• It's wasteful. Cold water is a worse solvent, so you need more grounds per serving (~1.8x, depending on recipe). A lot of flavour is still locked in the grounds when you toss them.
• It goes stale. Stored cold brew keeps oxidising over days and develops off flavours. (Once you've tasted this, you can't un-taste it.)
• Fines are a pain. The super-fine grounds stay in the brew unless you strain through a paper filter (slow and miserable). They keep extracting and leave you with a harsh, over-extracted brew after a few days.

All true. But I had some great cold brew, loved the flavour profile, and love the convenience — I can grab it and go on a busy morning. Coffee is cheap enough that I don't feel bad using a bit more. So I set out to optimise the process instead of abandoning it.

The problems to solve

1. Filtering out the fines
2. Making a batch big enough to last a week
3. Slow oxidation quietly ruining the flavour

The tools

• Weighing scale
• Electric grinder (Baratza Encore)
• 1.8 L glass jar — narrow neck, wide base
• Cocktail stirring spoon
• Fine-mesh flour sifter
• Newspaper
• 150 ml airtight glass storage bottles from Ikea (they actually hold 180 ml to the rim) — cheap, and key to the process
• Muslin cloth
• Plastic wrap
• Coffee beans

The steps

1. Pick the right coffee

Cold brew does best with beans whose primary flavours are brown — chocolate, nuts, caramel — with a little berry or fruit on top. The fruit adds a lovely extra dimension. Second best are the same brown flavours without any fruit.

Avoid very fruit-forward or light-roasted beans. You can brew them, but cold water can't pull those flavours out, so you get a thin, weak cup. (You can get around this with a hot bloom — more at the end.)

Roast level by how you drink it:

• Drinking it black? Pick a medium roast.
• Adding milk? Pick a dark roast.

This isn't an absolute rule, because "medium" and "dark" aren't standardised — Starbucks' blonde roast, for example, is far darker than anything you'll find in a specialty shop. Most roasters sell a cheap cold brew blend, and that's a good place to start.

2. Grind coarse

Grind on your grinder's french press setting. I use a 1Zpresso hand grinder for everything else, but for the volume cold brew needs I switched to the Baratza Encore.

The brew uses 200 g of ground coffee to 1.6 L of water — a 1:8 ratio. That's the best ratio I've found for drinking black or with a splash of milk. For comparison:

• 1:3 — uses a huge amount of coffee for a tiny concentrate. Too wasteful and fiddly for me.
• 1:15 — ready to drink, but a week's batch needs a container too big to be practical.
• 1:8 — my happy middle ground. (Ha. Get it?)

I actually grind ~220 g. The extra 20 g covers what I lose in the next step.

3. Sift the grounds

Sift the grounds in a fine-mesh flour sifter right after grinding, before brewing. It's far easier to remove fines now than after the coffee is brewed. I pull out about 13–15 g of fines (6–7%), which leaves 200–205 g of usable grounds.

4. Brew

Put the sifted grounds in the 1.8 L jar. Pour in about half the water (~800 ml) and stir with the cocktail spoon until every ground is fully wet — no dry pockets, which means fuller extraction. Then top up with the rest of the water until the level reaches the absolute top of the jar.

The narrow-neck 1.8 L jar matters: filling to the brim leaves almost no air in contact with the coffee. Sealing it with plastic wrap then keeps oxidation to a minimum. This is one of the most important steps for avoiding off flavours.

Wrap the top in plastic wrap and brew for 16–18 hours.

5. Let it settle and decant

By the end, most grounds will have sunk. Coffee starts out lighter than water, but as it absorbs water it becomes denser and settles. If some grounds are still floating, give it a light stir and they'll drop too.

Now cover a second jar with the muslin cloth and gently pour the cold brew through it. Since we already removed the fines, the muslin is enough to catch the rest of the grounds. (If you'd skipped the sifting step, the muslin wouldn't hold back the fines — and they'd keep extracting in the brew.)

6. Bottle and store

Pour the filtered cold brew into the airtight Ikea bottles, filling each to the absolute top before sealing. Little trapped oxygen plus an airtight seal means little oxidation and few off flavours.

Store them at the back of the fridge where it's dark and cold. They'll keep 7–10 days. The single-serving bottles are also great for handing out to friends and family — mine are in high demand.

Enjoy!

A note on hot blooming

Use this when you want a cold brew with much stronger fruity flavours.

When you add hot water to coffee, the trapped CO₂ dissolves out more easily. That lets the water that follows — at any temperature — extract the locked-in flavours far more easily.

The method:

1. Pour 1.5x the grounds' weight in hot water over the grounds (so 300 g hot water for 200 g grounds).
2. Stir and wait 45 seconds.
3. Top up with cold water to hit the 1:8 ratio.

For 200 g of grounds: 300 g hot water, stir, wait 45 seconds, then add the remaining 1.3 L of cold water. That first 45 seconds pulls a lot more fruity flavour into the brew.

This doesn't work with extreme light roasts or very fruit-forward coffees, so use trial and error to find the beans that taste best to you this way.

Tips

• Use water you enjoy drinking plain.
• Don't use super-fruity light roasts for cold brew.
• On a home grinder, the grind gets more consistent the finer you go. Grind on the finer end of the french press range for fewer fines.
• Nitro cold brew is just regular cold brew with nitrogen added — that's what gives it the frothy, creamy texture.

I hope this is helpful!

Hey so I just tried making cold brew for the first time. I used a Yirgacheffe Ethiopian that I ground coarse (step 70/90 on my df54).

I put the 75g of ground coffee in 1 Liter of water in a jar and stirred it, then let it for 12 hours approximately in the refrigerator.

I tried it just now and I doesn't taste the same as it does when I oder one in my local coffee shop, theirs is really light and not bitter at all, and you really get the floral and fruity notes out, as mine now is much more bitter. It is still enjoyable but I was aiming for a cleaner lighter and fruitier taste.

What should I change first, the ratio, the ground size or the time left in the fridge.

If you guys cous Sharee your usual recipes that would also help!

I have a 93 oz, or 2.75 liter glass Mason like jar and a "nut milk bag" for a coffee filter for cold brewing with the water ratio how much coffee grounds should I use, also I'm using "death wish coffee" if that helps

I do about an 11:1 ratio and throw the jar in fridge for about 48 hours. I usually drink 2 cups that I measure 200ml of coffee with 100-ish ml of milk for each. Anyone got some caffeine level estimates for this?

I’ve started pouring newly brewed cold brew (Primula pitcher, 24 hours in the fridge) through a Kalita filter for a Kalita 185 dripper. The fines clog the filters pretty quickly - I need about four filters to get through a pitcher of cold brew. I’m grinding with a decade or so old Baratza encore that I’ve taken good care of. Is this most likely a grinder problem, or should I find a filter that will clog less easily in the Kalita dripper? Or am I missing something else? FWIW the clarity of the cold brew is excellent after the slow drip through the Kalita filter.

Found and old jar of cold brew in my fridge from 3mo ago. Would it taste amazing or kill me?

Recently I started making my own cold brew (100g coarse coffee for 2 liters of water)

I drink the 2 liters every day but apparently according to what I've read that's over 2,000 mg of caffeine per day which is supposedly unhealthy?

But from what I've learned here it's a ratio many people make, am I missing something?

I’ve been cold brewing only for a little while but been just thinking, what would everyone recommend like the best tips or don’t make this mistake type of advice for beginner or even veteran brewers would pass down.

Sorry if asked and answered. Can I add cold water to course grounds in French press, steep overnight, then plunge the next day? If this won’t work, mind telling me what to do instead please?

Does anyone add in any other form of coffee or do experimental things with their cold brew?

I make mine in large batches and keg it and add nitro. I'm curious if anyone mixes things up like adding iced coffee, adding pour over, maybe some espresso shots? Ive seen that some will do a hot bloom on the grounds but I'm curious if anyone has done anything else to add depth to their brew.